


Insert Credit(s)

by 0dessa



Category: Game Grumps
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-06
Updated: 2014-02-07
Packaged: 2018-01-11 09:14:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 12,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1171321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/0dessa/pseuds/0dessa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>arin is in danger and the grump family has to go save him! read about their journey through the video game universe as barry, danny, suzy, and RAAAWWSS try to save their main man.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. New Challenger Approaches

“Hey, man, can I go get something to eat? I’m starving,” Danny sighed as Arin marked down the time the last episode of Game Grumps ended.  
“Absolutely, man, don’t let me stop you.”  
“Cool, I’ll be right back!”  
After Danny closed the door to the Grump Room, Arin began looking around the shelf for a new game to play. They’d just finished up Super Metroid and wanted to move on to doing a few one-offs before the next series.  
“Danny!” Arin yelled.  
No answer.  
He went to the door on the room and poked his head out to shout once more, “Danny!”  
“What’s up?” Dan shouted back.  
“What d’you wanna play next?”  
Danny came back to the doorway with a sandwich and a Pepsi, “You think we should try for Bump’N’Jump?”  
Arin thought for a little bit, “I guess we could. You’re playing it, though!”  
“That’s cool with me! I really gotta eat first, though.”  
“Yeah, I’ll just set it up and be right out.”  
With a mutual nod, Danny went out to the living room and Arin returned to wall to pull the cartridge out away from its neighbors. He knelt down in front of the television and popped the game into the console and hit the button to switch it on.  
“Arin…” said someone in a hushed tone.  
His hand was still on the NES, “Dan?”  
No answer.  
Again, a whisper, although this time more staticky, “A…rin…”  
He looked up at the screen to see nothing but a glowing screen.  
“Is the TV fuckin’ talking to me?” he said in a higher pitch than normal.  
Arin was then frozen where he was, his body becoming pixels. Quickly, they transported into the television, leaving nothing to even indicate Arin had been in the room at all. The tiny squares swirled and swirled through a series of code and numbers before reassembling the man on the ground in a brightly colored town.  
“What the fuck? What is this?” Arin said, growing more and more enraged.  
“Hello, Arin.”  
Arin spun around and before him was a cloaked figure speaking in reverberated tones.  
“What the fuck, man, this isn’t funny.”  
“I don’t intend it to be funny.  
Arin heard a rumbling sound and turned to see a group of cars rapidly approaching where he and the mystery person were standing. He leapt out of the way of a moving car just in time.  
“Where the hell am I?”  
“Arin, welcome to Bump’N’Jump.”


	2. It’s Like TRON but Not

“Arin, everything alright in here?” Danny asked, turning his phone off as he opened the Grump Room door..  
He didn’t get any answer.  
“Arin?” he looked up from the phone.  
To Danny’s shock, Arin was nowhere to be seen. He was sure Arin hadn’t left the room, but he went down the hall and knocked on the bathroom door, “Arin? You in there buddy?”  
Once again, he didn’t get an answer. He went back to the Grump Room.  
“Arin!” he called.  
He started to panic. He opened the window, nearly tearing curtains off the rod, but there was nothing to show that Arin had went out that way.  
“What the fuck?” he said under his breath.  
Danny walked back out to the living room where Barry and Suzy were sitting. Barry was editing a Steam Train episode and Suzy was preoccupied with Mochi.  
“Guys, I can’t find Arin,” he realized how stupid this sounded out loud.  
“What do you mean you can’t find him? He’s in the Grump Room,” Suzy said, laughing.  
“I looked there! He’s not in there!”  
“Did you check the bathroom?” Barry said, not looking away from his work.  
“Of course, still not there.”  
Suzy and Barry looked at each other as Dan stood there with his hands on his hips. They stood up and followed the taller one back to the scene where Arin disappeared. The three of them began looking in all areas of the Grump Room, scouring in the most impossible places where someone of Arin’s stature could be hiding. Danny even called Ross to tell him to come over as soon as he could to help find the Grump.  
Danny began moving stuff out of the way to pull the carpet up to look under the floorboards. However, once his hand hit the NES, he froze. As Arin had done before him, but this time in the presence of Suzy and Barry, Danny split into pixels and transported into the television.  
Suzy and Barry both cried out, “What the fuck?!”

Dan’s pixels swept through the layers upon layers of code and spliced together, dropping him on a grassy textured ground.  
“Owwww-uh, my head.”  
Danny stood up and looked around him; thick trees, cloudy sky. It almost looked normal, but when Danny reached down to touch the grass, he noticed it would simply phaze through his hand.  
Behind him, Barry pixellated into the world with him.  
“Where the fuck are we, Barry?” Danny shouted, putting hands to his face in terror.  
Barry looked around him as well, “I have no idea.”  
“Don’t just stand there, DO SOMETHING, BARRY!”  
“Danny, I don’t know what happened!”  
At that point, Suzy showed up, though she was looking more angered than puzzled.  
“None of you thought to leave a note for Ross explaining we have a haunted NES?”  
Barry and Danny looked at each other.  
“Whatever, it’s fine, he’ll know what to do when he gets here.”  
The three of them walked through the digitized forest until a something overhead cast a shadow over them.  
“Quick, under the trees!” Barry shouted.  
The three of the dispersed to find cover and look at whatever was casting the tremendous shadow. They couldn’t quite see it, but as it flew away, the distinct sound of a Macho Man Randy Savage catchphrase could be heard.  
Danny looked at Barry in utter horror, “Barry… Are we in Skyrim?!”  
The three of them met up once more in the small clearing. Danny was pacing in disbelief as Barry and Suzy were trying to hatch a plan.  
“Guys, I don’t think this is Bump’N’Jump,” Danny cried.  
“We’re gonna be fine. You and Ross played Skyrim with no problem. In fact, isn’t that one of Ross’s mods for it?” Barry said, nodding in the direction of the flying Macho Man.  
“Yeah, that’s pretty weird. How’d we end up in Skyrim from a NES?” Suzy added, putting her hair up in a ponytail.  
At the moment, simple floating white text appeared before them. It read out:  
DanielSexbang, Razzbarry, and Mortem3r have now joined the game.  
Danny wiped the sweat beading up on his forehead, “Oh, I don’t like where this is going.”


	3. Instructions? What Instructions?

“What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do?! Arin’s trapped somewhere out there and we’re stuck in Skyrim!” Danny panicked.  
“First of all, you need to chill the fuck out,” Barry said, sternly, as he placed his hands on Danny’s shoulders and forced him to sit down.  
“We should probably make ourselves less… real if we’re gonna be here awhile,” Suzy added.  
“It’s not exactly like we have a menu to access. We’re people, not characters,” Barry said back.  
In front of him appeared a transparent window. It showed an inventory and stats for the user under the handle Razzbarry.  
“I take that back.”  
Barry reached his hands out and placed it on a picture of a chestplate. Instantly, the same chestplate appeared on Barry. He repeated this until he was concealed in full armor.  
Suzy then followed, “Menu?”  
A menu for the player Mortem3r popped open and she, too, pressed at the icons until she was covered head-to-toe in armor and even equipped a sword and a spell.  
“Danny, your turn,” Barry said, taking his helmet off briefly.  
Danny still sat on the rendered log Barry had pushed him down on.  
“Danny, you have to put something on. You’ll stick out like a sore thumb,” Suzy stated.  
“I can’t fucking do it, man, this is all too much,” Danny cried.  
Barry walked over and sat next to him, “We have to do this, whatever it is, for Arin. If we have to fight Macho Man Randy Savage dragons and kill people with spells that sound like farts, it’ll all be to get Arin back and find out what the hell is going on.”  
Danny, with his attempts at staying behind now defeated, looked to Barry and said, “Menu…”  
Soon after, he joined the other two in being fully hidden in armor. The three of them cautiously walked through the forest and along the outskirts of any village they came across.  
“This is getting us nowhere. We have to start talking to the NPCs if we wanna make progress,” Suzy said, sheathing her sword.  
“We’re the Game Grumps, Suzy, we don’t make progress,” said Danny, following her.  
Suzy went off into the tavern to talk to the characters and Barry and Danny hung around in the village gathering supplies. To their surprise, they had quite a bit of money between them.  
“What’ll happen if I eat this thing?” Danny asked, holding up a mutton joint.  
“I dunno, try it,” Barry said.  
Danny took a bite out of it, “It doesn’t really taste like anything.”  
“Nothing came off of it, either. Must not have been modeled that way.”  
A small bar popped up in front of Danny and slowly began to increase in seven increments.  
“Looks like it filled your health up a little bit, though.”  
“Guys, I just spoke to some of the people in the tavern. It sounds like we’ll have to travel north,” Suzy explained, rejoining the party.  
“And we just gathered some supplies.”  
“Then let’s go!” Danny exclaimed.

The three of them walked towards north, being guided by a compass that Barry had bought from a merchant.  
“So, this thing moves but the lamb doesn’t change?”  
“Yeah, it has something to do with where the design team spent their time making models and running playtests,” Barry explained as Danny looked over his shoulder to look at the compass better.  
Suzy was walking with her sword out once more and with a spell ready in hand. Off in the distance, the three of them heard a faint, “Snap into a Slim-Jim,” and ran for the nearest cover. Danny hid with Suzy behind a rocky outcropping and Barry dove into a shallow hole, laying face-down to camouflage in with the dirt. The sound of wings flapping took over the area in the middle of their hiding spots. A dragon modeled with a beard and a purple hat covered in lightning bolts landed.  
“OH YEAH,” it shouted, breathing fire onto the grass.  
“Does it know we’re here,” Danny whispered.  
“It won’t if we keep hiding,” Suzy responded.  
All of them waited for the dragon to fly off for what seemed like hours. Finally, the dragon took off with another shout and Danny and Suzy ran over to where Barry was doing his best to stay covered.  
“You’re good, man, you’re good,” Danny said, kneeling down to help Barry up to his feet.  
“That’s a lot more stressful when you’re actually the character,” said the bearded man, brushing the dirt off of his armor.  
“Let’s just keep moving as quickly as we can,” Suzy said.  
“We should’ve gotten torches. Ross would’ve reminded us,” Danny sounded almost solemn.  
“Shouldn’t Ross be here by now?” Barry wondered aloud.  
“I don’t know. He could’ve been put in another game. Think about it, Bump’N’Jump was in the cartridge and we were taken to Skyrim. What’s to say that Ross couldn’t wind up somewhere else? What if he ends up in a game he doesn’t know how to play?” Suzy stated.  
“Yeah, Ross sucks at most things,” Danny laughed, but Suzy shot him a glance and he nodded as if to take back what he said.  
“And what if Arin’s trapped in a game he doesn’t know how to play?” Suzy was becoming more and more worried.  
Barry placed a hand on her shoulder, “Suzy, if Arin’s good at anything, it’s video games. What you really need to worry about is if he’s gonna pay attention to the instructions.”


	4. Out of This World

Arin sat in the back seat of a car piloted by a member of the Jackals, the main enemies in Bump’N’Jump. The cloaked figure sat next to him. Arin’s hands and feet were chained together.  
“Where are you taking me, exactly?” Arin asked.  
“You’ll find out soon enough, Ego… Egofaptor?”  
“Egoraptor was already taken.”  
The car stopped just as it had reached the edge where it was supposed to jump. The mystery figure dragged Arin out of the car and towards the edge. Arin gulped as he looked down into the 8-bit water texture.  
“Egofap- Arin,” the figure said, “What you’ve done is unforgivable. It’s time to make you pay or make you repent.”  
“The fuck you talkin’ about?”  
In front of them, a message appeared in white text:  
DanielSexbang, Razzbarry, and Mortem3r have now joined the game.  
“It seems your friends have arrived.”  
“You mean to tell me that they’re all in this game, too?”  
“Not exactly,” said the cloaked one, and with that, they pushed Arin off of the ledge and into the water below.  
—-  
“Danny! Behind you!” Barry screamed, casting a fire spell that also casted a sound of flatulence.  
The guard lay there on the ground after the direct hit and soon despawned.  
“We’ve got to be way more careful. This could be like that bad movie I saw; ‘You die in the game, you die for real,’” Danny said, mock-terror in his voice.  
Suzy punched Danny in the shoulder, “Don’t say that!”  
Danny rubbed his shoulder and gave her an apologetic look.  
The trio was coming upon a mountain range. Danny and Suzy began scaling the lower rocks, but Barry seemed preoccupied. He walked over to where a small rock was rendered to be right next to a tree and the texture appeared to change.  
“What’cha doin’, Barry?” Danny called after climbing up a larger boulder.  
“Just a second,” he replied. He walked over to where the textures changes and slowly disappeared into the mountain.  
“Woah, woah, woah, what the hell is that?” Danny shouted.  
“Can you guys see me?” Barry asked.  
“No, you’re invisible,” Suzy replied.  
“Come down here and check this out.”  
Suzy and Danny both hopped off the boulders, Danny stumbling a little upon landing, and jogged to where Barry had vanished into the mountain. He reemerged and explained what had happened.  
“When you and Ross were playing this, you used glitches in the game to get around. This is kind of like that, but just stand right here,” Barry paused, and positioned Danny to be in the exact spot that Barry was, “And look directly into the mountain. Tell me what you see.”  
Danny looked up and within the mountain he saw a completely different arrangement of colors and textures, “It looks like a completely different game.”  
Suzy then nudged Danny out of the the way to see for herself, “Is that… Is that Super Mario Sunshine?”  
“I believe so, yes,” Barry confirmed.  
Suzy walked forward and into the mountain. On the other side, she emerged in a brightly colored world and looked around to see fruit stands selling durians and other assorted fruits. She turned back around and poked her head through where she came out, “It is Super Mario Sunshine! Get in here!”  
Barry and Danny were quick to run in. The three of them also noted that their armor didn’t transfer.  
“Maybe we have to find Arin by glitching through these games?” Barry offered.  
“This doesn’t make any sense, but I guess now I’m on the roller coaster ride with all of you,” Danny said.  
“Ross better get here before we get too far in or else he might not be able to catch up.”  
—-  
Ross opened the door to the now empty house.  
“Guys, I’m here, did you find Arin yet?” he called, taking his shoes off at the door.  
He looked around for a sign that the Grump Family was still in the house.  
“Guys?”  
Ross went down the hall and knocked on the bathroom door, “Arin?”  
He knocked on the door to the guest bedroom, “Suzy?”  
He went into the living room, “Barry?”  
Finally he entered the Grump Room, “Danny?”  
The television was now frantically glowing flashing different colors. On the table, Ross saw a note addressed to him. He picked it up and recognized that Suzy must have written it.  
Ross,  
Arin’s missing, the NES is haunted, all of us are trapped in the game. Just touch it and you’re gonna be with us and we could use all the help we can get.  
-Suzy  
Ross looked at the note incredulously, “Is this some kind of joke?”


	5. Power Sliding Into Danger

Danny, Suzy, and Barry walked through the streets of Delfino taking in the vastly different color palette and style.  
“Should we try to get Yoshis?” Barry asked.  
“We could try, but I’m not sure if we’ll get to them without F.L.U.D.D.”  
“Suzy has a point,” Danny added.  
As they continued on, something came running up behind them, pushing Danny out of the way. Once it got to the end of the road, it jumped up on top of the building. Following closely behind was Mario with F.L.U.D.D., and with some clever use of the device, followed the form to the top of the roof.  
“It’s Mario? And Baby Bowser?” Danny said, curious.  
“This is fucking weird. I’m getting a headache,” Suzy commented. She stopped the group and picked up a durian. She stood, tapping her foot as Danny and Barry wondered what she was plotting. Once more, Baby Bowser came running around again. Suzy steadied herself and launched the durian right into Baby Bowser’s small body, causing him to tumble backwards. Mario quickly caught up to him and dowsed him with water, effectively ending the chase.  
“Let’s find a way to another game.”

—

Ross was more excited than nervous. He was on his own in the forests of Skyrim. He knew how to glitch through the game with ease; he had the home court advantage.  
Out in the air before him appeared:  
RubberNinjer has joined the game.  
“First thing, I need to get a torch…” he wondered out loud, “I wonder if I have a menu or something.”  
At his command, the menu came up for him, just as it had done for his three friends.  
“Yeah! This is awesome!”  
After a short while, Ross was running swiftly through the forests and over mountains, a dish tucked securely under his arm. He ran past enemies and dragons all while laughing and having a good time. Once he got to a small village, he realized that his time should be spent doing something else.  
“Oh, I guess I gotta find the others.”  
Ross spend the next ten minutes getting to the spot where he could ride upon one of the many Macho Man Randy Savage dragons. They flew over the map towards the predetermined destination as Ross looked down upon the land. As the approached a mountain, he noticed a glitch that seemed the fall through into another game. He saw this environment had a lot of waterways, but most importantly, he saw three people who looked like they didn’t fit in with the art style.  
“Oh my god, I gotta jump!” he yelled.  
Ross set the torch and plate down on the dragon’s back and stood up. Steadying himself, he jumped and aimed his body towards the water as best he could. Bracing for impact, he fell right through the mountain. He was on a course to splash into the ocean water right next to the pier where his three friends were standing. He tucked himself into a ball and as he got closer, he let out a scream of:  
“Cannonball!”

—

RubberNinjer has joined the game.  
“Ross?” Danny asked, looking around out of instinct.  
“He could just be in the ‘game,’ not necessarily here,” Barry said.  
The three of them, now all holding durians, kept walking around the plaza. They made their way over the the lighthouse and stood in front of the portal that would take them to another part of Super Mario Sunshine.  
“I don’t know if we should go in here, yet,” Suzy said, turning back around.  
The other two agreed in silence and began to walk back towards the plaza. Danny looked up into the sky and saw a speck falling rapidly towards them.  
“What the hell is that?” he pointed.  
The three of them watched as it rolled into a ball and as it got closer, they heard the screech of a familiar voice shouting, “Cannonball!” and it splashed into the ocean, causing water to cover them.  
Ross’s head poked up out of the ocean, “Hey guys! I found you!”  
“Goddamnit, Ross!” yelled the three on the pier in unison.  
“Can you guys help me up?”  
Danny wiped water off of his face, “You can swim to shore, you Australian jackass.”  
Ross began dog-paddling to the sand as Suzy, Barry, and Danny jogged to greet him. They helped him up once he reached the shore and all walked over to a spot where they could sit in the shade.  
“So, aside from making a splash, how’d you get here?” Barry asked.  
“I started in Skyrim,” Ross answered.  
“So did we. So whoever or whatever’s behind this wanted us to start there,” Barry replied.  
“I was havin’ a good time, I kind of wanted to stay.”  
“Of course you did, Ross,” Danny mocked, punching him in the shoulder.  
Ross winced, but continued, “So can you bring me up to speed on what’s goin’ on? Arin’s missing?”  
Suzy sighed, “Arin’s trapped in this game… universe… bullshit. We don’t know where, we don’t know what or who’s doing this, but it’s making me worried.”  
“But Arin’s good at games, you shouldn’t be worried!”  
“I know, Ross, that’s not what worries me.”  
“Then why are you so worried?”  
“I’m worried because we know so little about what’s happening.”


	6. Now You’re Thinking With those Transporting Things (Please Don’t Sue Me)

“Now that there’s four of us, we can split up and look for the spot where the game glitches. This might go a lot faster,” Barry said.  
“I dunno, I don’t like the idea of us splitting up, I mean, we’re lucky Ross even caught up with us,” Suzy retorted.  
Danny and Ross watched the two of them as they debated back and forth.  
Ross leaned over to Danny, whispering, “Why are you holding a durian?”  
“Shut up, Ross.”  
Ross shrugged and went back to listening to Barry and Suzy. It was ultimately decided that they would all look for a glitch as a group, putting Suzy at ease. The characters didn’t seem to even notice they weren’t part of the game. They found that with the four of them, they could boost themselves up onto the rooftops, and with this new vantage point Barry took the opportunity to hatch one of the Yoshi eggs.  
“I get to ride the Yoshi!” he cheered.  
“Alright, I guess you can go scout for us as the three of us continue to look around,” Suzy said.  
“Okay, I’ll be right back,” Barry said, and he hopped down off of the roof and rode Yoshi off into the plaza.

—

Arin woke up still in his shackles. He surveyed his surroundings not finding them to be terribly familiar. There were no windows, then again, he figured there’d be no point.  
“This is like some Disney Princess bullshit where I’m supposed to sing about wanting to be free,” he thought out loud.  
“Please don’t.”  
Arin turned and saw the mysterious figure once more.  
“You again, asshole? Give it a break already. I mean, what if I was jackin’ it and you just popped in on me? Who’d be the one feeling awkward? Not me, it’d be your own damn fault.”  
“Maybe I should’ve taken one of the others instead…”

—

“Maybe we should’ve just let Barry do the all the work. This is practically his game,” Danny contemplated, still holding the durian and walking around searching for the next spot to jump through.  
“Barry does all the work anyway, am I right?” Ross chuckled.  
“Barry’s only one person and this isn’t like editing a show together, you guys,” Suzy said, “Right now, we’re running out of options so we need to do all we can to get this over and done with.”  
Barry and the Yoshi came trotting back up to them, “I couldn’t find any holes in the game.”  
The group started thinking about how they could possibly move on without an obvious solution. This situation didn’t come with any instructions or a walkthrough.  
Ross then spoke up, “I wonder if we were able to find it in Skyrim because that game is easily breakable.”  
The other three looked at him, but Barry spoke, “Continue, Ross.”  
“I mean, I was able to glitch through the game. Super Mario Sunshine, however, not so easily breakable, I suppose, so maybe the next glitch isn’t something we’re going to be able to see?”  
“Are you saying one of the portals to another part of the game might be a portal to a different game?” Suzy asked.  
“I don’t know, I’m just takin’ a shot in the dark, here.”  
“Well, it’s the best lead we got! Guys, we need to start going through some portals,” Danny said.  
The four of them ran back to the lighthouse and stopped just before the brightly colored ‘M.’  
“Well, we’re wasting time just standing here! See you guys on the other side,” Danny said, and he hopped in through the portal.  
Barry was next, followed by Suzy, and then Ross. They were in another part of the Sunshine universe, and once more they were caught facing another pre-programmed part of the game. Il Piantissimo was running up the side of the cliff with Mario trailing behind.  
“Hold on one second, I gotta do something,” said Danny. With one hand, he chucked his durian up the side of the cliff, and tripped Il Piantissimo and guaranteed Mario a win for the race.


	7. This is a Fine Pickle

“Since we know that this isn’t the portal, should two of us go back and look through the plaza again?” Barry asked.  
“I guess we could. We’d probably cover more ground that way,” said Suzy.  
“How are gonna split up?” Ross asked.  
“Well, Barry and I can’t be in a group since we’re both shorter,” Suzy explained.  
“Okay, how about this: Me and Barry, and Suzy and Ross. Sound good?” Dan suggested.  
“Suzy is probably the only one besides Arin and Holly who can keep Ross in line, good job, Dan,” Barry said.  
“Uh, standing right here, guys,” Ross said meekly.  
Barry and Danny began their expedition across the new part of the map to where the next portal was as Ross and Suzy went back to the plaza. Barry reminded them to take the opportunity to ride Yoshis as it would give them speed when going from place to place.  
Ross and Suzy decided it would be wise to begin their search efforts at Pinna Park.

—

The cloaked figure and Arin stood facing each other, not a word between them, the air growing more and more tense. Arin was the first to break the silence.  
“Can I ask one quick question?”  
“Go ahead.”  
“Why am I here?” Arin was frustrated. He realized that he hadn’t eaten anything and was growing grumpier by the second.  
“Because you took something from me.”  
Confused, Arin inquired further, “What exactly did I take? I never steal.”  
“You stole Wav-”  
“Except Wave Race 64 and I still feel guilty for it, but aside from that, I haven’t taken anything.”  
“What you took wasn’t something tangible.”  
“Are we playing 20 Questions now, or something?” he yelled. Arin then stopped to think, “Is this all because of the changes to Grumps?”  
“At last, the goldfish finds its food.”  
“First off, that doesn’t make sense; second, the changes aren’t going away, man.”  
“Then we’re at a stalemate. So long as you continue to defy me, the longer I’ll keep you and your friends here.”  
“You’re an asshole.”  
“Yes, you’ve made that quite clear.”

—

“Barry, let me help you up here then you can pull me up,” Dan said.  
“Or we could just walk up this path over here.”  
“Fine, if you wanna do things the uncool way.”  
The two of them were still walking around on their way to the next portal. Dan spotted it, but stopped Barry from walking directly in.  
“What’s up?”  
Danny looked at Barry, terrified, “Dude, isn’t this the way to that fuckin’ Sand Bird?”  
“Only one way to find out!” Barry then went through the colorful M, leaving Danny dreading what was on the other side.  
Caving to pressure, Danny found himself running through the portal after his friend. Once the transportation sequence stopped, he found himself with a disgruntled Barry atop, to his chagrin, the aforementioned legendary Sand Bird.  
“God damnit!” they both screamed as the bird flew slowly around the new environment.

Meanwhile, Ross and Suzy had just reached Pinna Park. Suzy had gone off to search around the ground level of the park while Ross offered to search the upper levels, meaning he began climbing ramps and getting onto the rides. Ross hopped onto the roller coaster and it began careening down and around the twists and turns as a giant mechanized Bowser popped up in the center. Realizing he had no way to protect himself, he ducked down into the car. He heard the sound of Bullet Bills hitting the back and front of his hiding spot and looked above as the flames from the robot were flying above him. Once the fire was gone, he stood up to get a good look at Mecha-Bowser. As he got close once more, he saw that the mouth held what the group had been searching for.  
Hearing the commotion, Suzy had ran over and began yelling to Ross to make sure he was still in the game. Ross managed to climb out of the car and onto the landing platform and made his way back down to her.  
“Suzy! Suzy! It’s in his mouth!” he said between deep breaths.  
“In his mouth?” she asked, “How are we supposed to get in there?”  
“Maybe we should just jump Mario for the F.L.U.D.D.”  
“The least we can do is go get Danny and Barry and maybe we can figure something out from there.”  
“Or we could do that.”  
Ross and Suzy hurried back to Gelato Beach where they had parted ways with Danny and Barry, however the two men were nowhere to be found.  
Ross pointed out another Color Portal, “They’re probably in there.”  
“Alright, let’s go tell them, then.”

“Barry, do something!” Danny screamed, trying to maintain his balance.  
“The most we can do is just ride it out, man.”  
Between them, their two friends appeared.  
“Oh, great, now all of us are in this nightmare level,” Danny lamented.  
“Ah, shit,” Suzy muttered under her breath, realizing where she and Ross now were.  
“Hey, guys! I found where we need to go next!” Ross said, excited.  
Danny continued, “That’s great, Ross, now maybe you can turn your attention to the fact we’re on a giant fucking bird made of sand.”  
“Oh…”  
The bird began to make its slow ascent around the level. The four of them stood ready for the first turn.  
“We should link arms or hold hands or something so none of us fall off,” Barry said and they all began to hold onto each other just as the creature began its first major turn. This caught Ross off guard and sent him falling. He slid and caught hold of the edge of a block of sand as the other three were able to climb to safety.  
“God damnit, Ross, hold on!” Danny cried, afraid he might actually lose one of his best friends.  
“I’m trying, Dan!” Ross called back, fear filling his eyes.  
But it wasn’t enough. Ross’s fingers gave way and he fell off of the bird.  
“Ross, no!” screamed his three friends, watching him slip off into the air below. Barry and Suzy had to restrain Dan from throwing himself after him. It was only moments until Ross’s body was no longer visible and he was gone.  
“Shit. Shit, shit, shit, fuck, god damn, fuck,” Danny said as the bird began to regulate. He sat on its back, clutching his head with his hands, “If only he just held on.”  
Barry patted his friend on the back, “It’s gonna be okay, Dan.”  
The three of them hardly noticed that the bird had run its course and the level was over.


	8. Rocket Jump

“I can’t believe he’s gone,” Danny was still crying, “We don’t even know if he got kicked back out into the real world.”  
“Who knows, he could be sitting there at the couch. In which case he could just easily find us again,” Suzy said, trying to comfort him.  
Barry and Suzy helped Dan back to his feet and guided him over to the platform where the Shine was waiting for them. Barry ran over and grabbed it so the three of them could finally get out of the level. Dan seemed to recover once they were back out at the beach.  
“Suzy, where did Ross find the next glitch?” he asked.  
“It’s in Pinna Park. He said something about it being in that Mecha-Bowser’s mouth, but we had no clue how to get up in there,” she explained.  
“Did you think about jumping Mario for F.L.U.D.D.?” Barry asked, but Suzy shot him a dissatisfied glare.  
“What other choice do we really have? We could try to corral Mario into the park so he could use it,” Danny suggested.  
They set off into the plaza in order to find Mario. Once again, he was chasing Baby Bowser through the streets and on the rooftops, spraying water any chance he got. Barry, Danny, and Suzy watched as he ran repeatedly around the plaza, trying to note patterns that both characters would have, but Danny soon found that his thoughts kept wandering back to his now lost friend.  
“I can’t fucking do it, guys,” he said, “My head’s not in it anymore.”  
“Danny, we can’t do this without you,” Suzy said.  
“Well we can’t do it without Ross, either!” he yelled.  
Suzy wound her arm back and slapped Danny across the face. At once, she screamed, “Ross isn’t here just like Arin isn’t here. We’re doing this for Arin and I know for sure Ross would be proud of us to continue on. So let’s do this for both of them, alright?”  
Danny stared at her a moment as the pain in his face subsided. Then he spoke.  
“Shit, Suzy, I’m sorry. I let myself get carried away. We gotta do this. For Arin and Ross.”  
“Fuck yeah, we do,” she nodded.  
Barry, who was stationed at a corner of the plaza farther down the way, was running towards them.  
“Barry?” the other two said in unison.  
“Guys! Guys! Run! If we act like Baby Bowser, he registers it as him and he follows us!” he said, trying to talk and run at the same time.  
“Oh, this is some Scooby-Doo bullshit right here,” Danny said, and he and Suzy joined Barry in running towards the Color Portal that would take them right to Pinna Park.

The three of them, plus Mario, all ran through to the other side and into the park. Danny was able to run further and Suzy coached him on where to go. He climbed up the walkways, making sure that the mustachioed plumber was tailing him. Danny hopped into a car and as soon as Mario entered, the Mecha-Bowser reappeared. At the next go-around, Danny climbed out of his car and stood on the platform where Barry and Suzy were waiting. As Mario’s car came around again, the character started shooting water into the robot.  
“Look!” Suzy hollered, pointing into Mecha-Bowser’s mouth.  
Inside, they could all see a glitch that indicated they could be taken to a different game environment. It was colorful with cartoon-esque graphics depicting the inside of what looked to be a grey brick-and-mortar building.  
“I have idea what that is,” Suzy said.  
Danny squinted at it, “Oh my god.”  
Barry and Suzy were curious, “What?”  
Danny took a deep breath, “It’s castle Crashers.”  
Barry and Suzy looked at each other.  
“Remember, Danny,” Barry said.  
“We’re doing this for Arin and Ross,” Suzy finished.  
When Mario’s roller coaster car came back around, Danny leapt onto it. As Mario sprayed water, Danny took the opportunity to launch himself across the gap and into Mecha-Bowser’s open mouth. Immediately, he was phazed through and into the next game.  
“I think he’s back, Barry.”  
“Couldn’t agree with you more, Suzy.”


	9. Makin’ My Way Downtown

Suzy, Barry, and Danny were soon safely through the portal and in the world of Castle Crashers. They had been transported to the forest level, and a bunch of dead knights lay on the ground at their feet.  
“You think we can disguise ourselves to blend in a little?” Barry asked.  
Danny, saying nothing, found a Blue Knight and picked up what he could of its uniform. Because the shirt was a mere graphic, it stretched and fit over his clothes. Suzy and Barry did the same with a Green and Red Knight, respectively. Suzy even outfitted herself with the helmet.  
“I know he’s still here,” Danny said, looking out into the stylized forest.  
“What makes you think that?” Suzy asked him, genuinely curious.  
“Yeah, I mean, remember when we all showed up and our names flashed in front of us? Wouldn’t there be some indicator that Ross was gone or…” he trailed off, not daring to finish what he and the others were thinking.  
Barry and Suzy looked to one another.  
“You’re right, we never saw something like that. But we also don’t know anything about this universe. Whatever’s behind this may be able to keep some things secret,” Barry explained, picking up a sword and handing it to Suzy.  
Danny nodded as he picked up a mallet and handed Barry a staff. The three of them began their trek through the map, fighting off enemies when it was necessary.  
“This game seemed pretty airtight, you guys,” Suzy said as she laid waste to another bear enemy.  
“I can’t even begin to think of where to look for the next portal,” Danny said, scratching his head.  
Barry was thinking. He looked around the environment, seeming to assess every minute detail. and it was a while before he spoke up again.  
“When you and Ross played this, do you remember when there was something graphically different about this game?”  
Danny looked bewildered, “I have no idea what that means.”  
“I mean, yeah, there’s the normal graphics, but what about some type of overlay that happened?”  
“Overlay? You mean the credits?”  
“Exactly. My theory is that the credits are where we’re going to find the next portal, you see, the designers are all out of Newgrounds. This coding and gameplay is going to be rock solid, but if someone were going to put an interdimensional portal, it’d have to be in some place where the visual integrity was weakened. During the credits, there’s an overlay in order to display the team names, leaving the running image in the back. That layer for the credits is just names. It’d be easy to dismantle it,” Barry explained.  
“I think you need to rest a little bit,” Suzy chastised.  
“It’s the only lead we’ve got, much like how we’ve been doing the rest of this whole fiasco,” Danny said, “That means we have to beat the game.”  
“Can we get to the map from here?” Suzy asked.  
“We can try?”  
The three of them started running back to where the level began and sure enough, they were able to access the beige map.  
Looking out across it, Danny said, “It’s almost like Ross and I just beat this.”  
“Come on, man, keep it together,” Barry stated, cupping his hand over Danny’s shoulder.  
The three of them ran to where the Final Battle was going to take place. They made sure to stock up on potions beforehand and grab better weapons. They made their way through the level unscathed and came upon the Evil Wizard.  
“Get ready, we all need to get through this,” Danny yelled, then said under his breath, “I can’t lose another one of you.”  
The Evil Wizard initiated battle, throwing up his forcefield. Suzy began pelting him with poison darts until the shield fell, then Barry and Danny ran up and hit him with their weapons. Barry was hit and was knocked back, but easily recovered. This sequence happened twice more until the forcefield was down for good. The Wizard was then bloated and floating around the battle stage. One-by-one, he dropped three white spheres onto the ground.  
“Take cover!” Barry yelled, and the three of them ducked around the sides of the level as the white capsules exploded, a piece of shrapnel hitting Danny on the back of the shoulder, but not leaving any noticeable damage.  
“Yeah, that might bruise tomorrow,” he winced, but returned to fighting once the Evil Wizard landed.  
This transformation was that of a giant spider, and he flew up to the top of the level and began swinging his claws down at the fighters. With his second swing, he hit Suzy, knocking off her helmet. In response, Suzy hurled a slew of poison darts towards him, not missing a single shot. She began jumping and trying to hit him, but her weapon was barely grazing the claws.  
“Danny, help me out over here!” she called.  
Dan rushed over and she said, “I’ll keep him distracted with magic, but you have to jump up and hit him to do the most damage.”  
He nodded and began leaping wildly into the air as Suzy kept the giant spider occupied with her magic. Soon, the Evil Wizard took a lunge down from the ceiling and transformed once more, this time catching Suzy off guard and causing the remains of his spider form to explode in her direction.  
“Fuck!” she yelled, holding her face.  
“Suzy!” Dan and Barry screamed, running to her aide.  
She removed her hands, revealing a cut going across her nose and down her left cheek. She took one of the potions out and drank it and the scratch seemed to recede.  
Once more, the Evil Wizard turned into his balloon form. He was easier to take down as all three of them concentrated their magic on him. Shortly, he was in his final form. He was simply the Evil Wizard, but this time, his weapon was the most powerful in the game. Barry, Suzy, and Danny knew they had to put more than enough effort into this if they wanted to get to the credits. Danny started off with a flurry of sword hits and ice arrows. The wizard hit Danny once with the sword and this left Danny almost buckling and folding in half. He fell over onto the ground, passed out cold. Barry ran in next with his blade and lightning attacks and was thrown across the stage.  
“No!” Suzy yelled. Her friends were being hurt right before her eyes. She took her weapon in her hands and ran towards the Evil Wizard as his back was still turned towards her. She lifted the blade high above her head and swung it down upon him with all her might. She was also able to pelt him with poison darts, and this combination of relentless attacks took the Evil Wizard’s health down to zero.  
Danny and Barry regained consciousness as the Evil Wizard’s fortress began to crumble. The game was over and they had won.  
“Great job, Suzy,” Danny groaned, giving her a weak thumbs up.  
She smiled and walked over to him, throwing him a potion. She walked over to Barry and handed one to him as well. Soon, nothing was left of the castle and the three of them began falling through the sky.  
“Wait, wasn’t there supposed to be one more princess here?” Barry asked.  
As soon as he had finished, an odd-looking character in an orange dress with green hair fell into Danny’s arms.  
Danny was surprised, and he dropped the new arrival.  
“Ouch! What the hell, man?”  
Danny knelt down and moved the green hair out of the way to see a familiar face with high cheekbones and bright blue eyes.  
“Ross?!” he yelled, stunned.  
The Australian laughed in response, “Hey Dan!”


	10. Insert Wilhelm Scream Here

Danny stood up and held out his hand to help Ross, and Dan pulled his friend into a hug which Barry and Suzy joined. There was a brief moment of silence that was broken when a few quiet sobs were heard. The four of them let go of the embrace.  
“Are you all crying?” Ross asked, not mentioning the tears slowing rolling down his own face.  
“So are you, you dickbag!” Dan said, his voice cracking slightly, but also laughing.  
It was a moment where the four of them could just take in a deep breath and sigh, knowing that they were all safe and together and could concentrate on finding the last member of their team.  
“I was kind of expecting us to be here longer,” Suzy pointed out, fixing her eyeliner, “It felt like we were in Sunshine forever.”  
“Well, we were probably in that last battle for a while. You were awesome, by the way,” Barry said.  
Suzy nodded, “Yeah, I know.”  
“But we didn’t find anything to take us to another board.”  
“Wait, I think I found the thing!” Ross yelled.  
“We should just let you go first through these things if you keep finding them. You’re like a hound dog,” Danny chuckled, “Lead the way, Ross.”  
Ross guided the three back through the map, still wearing the Clown Princess attire.  
“Is no one even gonna mention that Ross is in a dress?” Danny asked.  
Suzy and Barry shrugged, Suzy saying, “So? Arin wore dresses for, like, three things.”  
“Good point.”  
The four of them were now at the beginning of the game, in between the barn for the animal orbs and the giant frog which housed the weapons. Ross quickly stepped into the mouth of the frog and beckoned the others to follow him, which they did so reluctantly.  
“This feels gross,” Barry chided.  
“Yeah, but the portal thing is all the way back here. It’s like in the back of this thing’s mouth where, if you were playing the game normally, the camera can’t move over to it,” Ross explained.  
“There goes your theory, Barry,” Danny said, giving the one mentioned a quick glance.  
“Hey, if we didn’t go all the way, we wouldn’t have found Ross.”  
“That sounds oddly sexual, and I regret mentioning it,” Suzy said, a disgusted look on her face.  
“There it is!” Ross pointed.  
The others joined him and took a look inside the next portal. Inside, the environment was dark and there was a light snowfall.  
“I have no idea what that is,” Barry said.  
“Oh no,” Danny said, despair in his voice.  
“What is it?” asked Ross.  
“You’ll see,” said Dan, and he grabbed ahold of Ross and Suzy and walked through the portal, dragging them through and Barry following behind.  
A thick layer of snow covered the street beneath them. They were standing next to a gas station that seemed to be completely abandoned. Danny jogged forward and almost immediately, giant shards of ice shot up through the asphalt. Ice began to coat everything, and blood-curdling screams could be heard in the distance.  
“We’re in Silent Hill: Shattered Memories!” Danny screamed, beginning to panic. He began running and the others followed closely behind.  
As they passed through the first door, they noticed the monsters began giving chase.  
“Dan, do you remember where to go?” Suzy yelled.  
“Can’t talk, too busy not dying!” Danny screamed in response, quickly getting winded.  
“There’s four of us and more of them! We can do this!” Ross shouted.  
“Good job, Ross, that doesn’t help at all!” Danny said.  
They quickly scrambled to help each other over a fence that blocked their path and proceeded to continue running down alleyways and through various doors.  
“This looks like the end!” Barry said.  
Suzy pulled ahead of the group and ran fast towards the lone door in the larger wall. She opened it swiftly and held it there so her friends could shamble through, Danny bringing up the rear of the pack. Once everyone was through, she slammed the door shut behind her and collapsed onto the snow with the others.  
“Goddamn, I am out of shape,” Danny said, steam from his breath dissipating out in front of him.  
“There’s still one thing I’m wondering about, though,” Barry choked out between breaths.  
Danny, Suzy, and Ross were all still winded and sitting on the ground, but looked to him as if to allow him to continue on.  
“Ross, where did you go when you fell off of the Sand Bird?”  
Ross sat up, his face flushed red from sprinting. He coughed, but began to retell the series of events.  
“After I was bucked off of it, I fell for a little bit and then everything kind of went black. I remember I was laying down on what I guess was the ground, like, literally every-fucking-thing was black, and I looked up to see the Super Mario Sunshine ‘Game Over’ graphic above my head, so I thought I was fucked. I was there for a while, just kind of being sad that I wasn’t there anymore, and I thought I was going to get shot back out into the real world, but I wasn’t. I noticed that I began sinking into the floor, like something out of a nightmare, and I was spit out in Castle Crashers. I ended up at the very beginning and I took the place of the Clown Princess because I thought I’d have more of a chance to just stay there and not die while I waited for the rest of you to catch up with me.”  
“So your nightmare quicksand also spat you out in Castle Crashers?” Barry said, “That must mean that the four of us are supposed to go along a specific pattern of games that’s different than the one Arin has.”  
Ross shrugged, then flopped back into the snow. As he passively flailed his arms and legs to make a snow angel, he said, “Sounds about right.”  
“We’re just glad to have you back, buddy,” Danny said, nudging Ross in the side with his knee.  
“It’s weird seeing you so sentimental,” Ross laughed.  
“Yeah, well, you’re all my friends! I’m obviously gonna be sad if you guys die. I’m not gonna be some jerk like, ‘Better off without them, peace,’” Danny said, his voice lowering upon the mocking words.  
“In that case, it’s nice to know you, and Barry and Suzy, care so much.”

—

“Your friends are impressive, Egofaptor,” said the cloaked figure, voice shaking upon saying Arin’s screen name.  
“That’s why they’re my friends,” he said, “I’ve gotta itch on my back, can you help me out here?”  
The cloaked figure sighed, and Arin’s shackles became longer, allowing him to reach his back. Once he was done, the bindings returned to their original length.  
“Are you no longer slinging insults at me?”  
“I ran out of insults.”


	11. It’s Getting a Little Too Real

Danny opened the door to the diner as the other three followed. Even though he was scared out of his mind, Danny knew the most about the game with Suzy being able to help guide them in the right direction.  
“Aw, man, I hate games like this. I can feel my blood pressure rising,” Danny groaned.  
“All you need to do is keep running,” Suzy said, “And if one of those things catches you, just throw them off.”  
“Yeah, it sounds totally simple when you put it like that, but at least you and Barry have been working out. Me and Ross, on the other hand? We’re kinda defenseless.”  
“Then how about if Barry stays at the back of our little herd? That way he can take on the monsters and I can stay up front to lead us to safety,” Suzy explained.  
“I like that idea, let’s do that,” Ross said.  
While walking around the city, they were able to do as they pleased. They looked around at the details that were there and the ones that were omitted due to the Wii’s graphical capabilities.  
“This feels really weird to me. It almost looks real, but I can just tell it’s not,” Danny mused.  
“That’s some Uncanny Valley shit, isn’t it?” Barry asked.  
The four of them were now wandering around the forest. It was dark, so they all held onto each other in some way. Suzy and Danny continued to lead, though Danny’s nervous shaking led to a lot of stops along the way. They all made their way up to the hunting lodge and walked around inside, collecting the memento but skipping the spirit photo. Outside once more, they managed to get to the pumping station.  
“I don’t wanna go in there,” Danny whined.  
Suzy sighed, “If you all just stay here, I’ll go down there and activate everything.”  
“Will you be alright?” Barry asked.  
She shrugged, “I can cut a bitch if I need to.”  
Suzy climbed the fence and descended the ladder down into the pumping station. Everything around her was shrouded in darkness. Above, she could hear Ross tell a dick joke in order to lighten the mood, but it wasn’t about to stop her from her mission. She meandered down the metal-lined hallways, her footfalls causing echoes to bounce off the dingy walls.  
“You can save Arin yourself, you know.”  
Suzy gasped and spun around, but found no one.  
“That sounded… that sounded like me,” she whispered into the still air.  
“You don’t need them.”  
It was indeed her voice, but Suzy wasn’t speaking.  
“What the fuck is going on?” she asked, raising her voice.  
“You’re better off finding Arin by yourself.”  
“Be quiet!” Suzy yelled as she continued down the hallway, finding the area for the spirit photo, and turning around to return to the surface.  
“The three of them are useless without you.”  
Suzy ignored the voice as she sprinted through the hallway. She leapt over the pipes and climbed back up the ladder. As she was hopping the fence, she almost fell, stumbling upon hitting the ground and toppling over into the snow.  
“Shit, Suzy, are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Danny said, the three men leaning over to make sure their friend was safe.  
Suzy put her hands over her heart and then on her forehead as she sat up. Panting, she was able to get out, “I heard something down there, and it wasn’t part of the game.”  
“What was it?” Barry inquired.  
“It was my voice, but I wasn’t saying anything. It was telling me not to trust you guys.”  
Ross’s breath caught in his throat as the other two looked at each other.  
Suzy continued, “Whoever’s doing this, and now I’m certain it’s a ‘who,’ is trying to make it personal.”  
She reached out her hands and Danny and Ross helped her to her feet. She was still winded, so she leaned on Barry for support as they walked towards another building in hopes of activating the next Nightmare Zone. As the ambient noise began to indicate that a spirit was near, Suzy tapped Barry on the shoulder.  
“I’m gonna stay out here this time. I’ll be able to run, but you need to help keep these things off of us,” she said.  
Barry nodded, “Then I’ll go inside and activate it.”  
He walked into the building and jumped when the shadow figure ran back towards him, the room becoming covered in a thick layer of ice. Barry turned back on his heels and ran out to his friends. The other three were already getting prepared to run as Barry crashed through the door.  
“Let’s go!” he yelled, giving the others a head start, hoping that by hanging behind he’d be a distraction for the monsters.  
As they ran, the path started to fork into different paths.  
“Left!” Danny shouted.  
“Right!” Ross screamed at the same time as Danny.  
The two of them split down their respective paths, causing a moment of panic when they looked to find no one with them.  
“Goddamnit!” Danny yelled, but kept running, seeing a couple monsters following him close behind.  
Suzy and Barry were stuck at the fork in the road where Ross and Danny split up. The monsters had caught up with them and were latched on tight. Suzy was still low on energy from running through the pump station, but Barry was able to keep them off.  
“Barry! Barry, help!” she cried, slowly getting overtaken by the pale pink demons.  
He ran up to her and began prying at them.

—

“Look at how they struggle. They’re not fit to be your partners.”  
Arin tried to look away as the Cloaked Figure showed him his friends struggling through Shattered Memories.  
“Stop it, you dick,” he shouted.  
“Barry! Barry, help!” Arin heard Suzy’s cries and looked at his wife struggle with the monsters that he was easily able to shake off with simple jerks of the Wii Remote.  
Arin’s brow furrowed, “That’s my wife. You hurt her and I’ll hurt you.”  
“I highly doubt that. My sources indicate a notable lack of violence in your past.”  
Arin watched that Barry was able to save Suzy and for a moment they were able to follow the path on the right, but they caught up with Ross who was also being dragged down by the creatures. Soon, they were back in the same position.  
Arin couldn’t watch anymore without the anger swelling within him. He noticed the Cloaked Figure had turned its back, and he snuck up behind it. With his hands still in shackles, he was able to raise his hands and swing them upside the figure’s head, sending it flying across the room.  
“You fool!” the figure began to bellow, “You damned, arrogant fool!”  
Arin was now the one yelling, “I fucking warned you!”


	12. The Harking

Danny continued running down the path until his legs could no longer carry him, and he fell into the snow, hiding under some of the digitally rendered trees. His chest rising and falling as he tried to remain quiet as the monsters scurried past. He noticed that the others weren’t with him or even catching up to him.  
That’s when he heard their cries being carried from the other side.  
“Aw, shit, I gotta go help ‘em but I’m so scared of those things,” he said to himself, making sure not to raise his voice.  
“What are you even doing?”  
Danny was startled to hear his own voice talking to him, though he wasn’t thinking what was being said.  
“What the fuck is that?” he said again.  
His voice spoke to him once more, “Come on, man, you’re too old to be hanging around with them. They don’t need you here.”  
“Stop it!” Danny said, thoughts matching his own voice, “I can’t stay here, this must be what Suzy was talking about.”  
Danny rolled out from under the tree on the opposite side and began a steady jog through the forest, trying to avoid the monsters as best as he could which was usually by flailing wildly and screaming at the top of his lungs. He managed to find a flare tucked into the snow, but refrained from using it should he stumble upon the others.  
“Danny!”  
“Dan, where are you?!”  
“Danny, we need help!”  
He heard all three of them shout for him. He stood, spinning in the middle of the forest until he could determine where they were coming from.  
“Hold on, I’m comin’ for ya!” he called back to them, and he ran towards where he thought his friends would be.  
After a while, he dropped down a ledge and found Barry, Suzy, and Ross struggling to keep the monsters off of them. They looked tired, Ross stumbling trying to remain standing. Dan noticed that they were just at the bottom of the hill where the middle portion of the Nightmare Zone was; all they had to do was get inside the cabin and they could rest for a while. Dan struck the flare and began a sprint towards them, screaming the entire time in order to get their, and the monsters’, attention.  
“Guys, just get up to that cabin! I’ll try to hold them off!”  
Suzy, trying to catch her breath, said, “But you’re terrified of these things! We can’t leave you here.”  
“It’s what friends do, Suze, just go already.”  
Barry and Suzy helped Ross steady himself and they made their way up to the cabin as Danny stood there holding the flare out to scare away the monsters, looking back every so often to check if his friends had made it. Once they were out of sight, he began his own trek to the cabin, but as soon as he started, the flare fizzled out.  
“Oh, shat.”  
The monsters began to shriek and one flung itself onto Danny’s front, causing him to scream in such a high pitch that it barely even registered as noise. He swung his arms around until the monster fell off and he scrambled up the hill and snow-lined stairs to the cabin. He swung the door open and slammed it behind him, holding his back against it to make sure nothing would follow him. Suzy, Barry, and Ross were scattered about the frozen cabin and looked at him standing there, breathing heavily.  
“I fucking hate horror games,” he hissed.  
“We already finished the puzzle for this room if you wanna just chill for a bit. We have to go back out there and find the bridge to the normal world,” Barry explained.  
“Yeah, lemme just catch my breath for a bit,” Danny said, slumping off of the door, “Move your fucking feet, Ross.”  
Danny plopped down onto the couch, but found that it was cold and still a bit frozen to the touch.  
“These video game couches aren’t very comfortable,” Ross said, turning to sit up next to Dan.  
There was a momentary silence once more. They had almost become separated again, and who knows where they would’ve ended up had they all died in the game. Would they be together? Would they have to journey on by themselves?  
“Suzy?”  
“Yeah, Dan?”  
“Remember how you told us you heard that voice? That is was your voice, but you weren’t saying it?”  
Suzy nodded, coming closer to the couch.  
“It happened to me, too.”  
She thought a moment before speaking, “What did it say to you?”  
“It was my voice. It was trying to make me feel… insecure. Like I’m not good enough,” Dan was more subdued in his tone than usual, even in the middle of a horror game. This was something he had struggled with for a good portion of his life.  
Suzy knelt down to speak directly to Dan, “And it told me not to trust any of you, but here I still am. I’ve known all of you weirdos for too long to stop trusting you now.”  
Dan gave a small chuckle and nodded, “Yeah, you’re right. I won’t let it get to me.”  
Barry patted him on the shoulder, “Good man.”

—

Arin was fumbling over the shackles, but was able to break his way through the cell where the Cloaked Figure was keeping him. The figure’s threats meant nothing to him at this point, not after he saw his friends put in danger. He looked around and saw that though the environment seemed familiar, he was under too much duress to place where he was.  
“I need to find a way out of here,” he said as he ran, doing his best to avoid tripping up over his restraints, “I should look for a way to get rid of these fuckin’ things.”  
The environment was relatively primitive in terms of graphics but was easy enough to navigate. Arin soon found himself standing on a ledge with a steep drop-off that only led to more ground below. He looked behind him and heard a rumbling sound, figuring it was his captor coming to reclaim him.  
“Fuck, I can’t believe I’m doing this,” he said.  
He shut his eyes tights and fell off of the ledge. As he was plummeting towards the ground, he only opened his eyes for a brief second to see a bright yellow beam come towards him and collide with his body.

—

“How much longer do you think until we find where Arin is?” Ross asked.  
Suzy’s face seemed sad. This seemed like the longest time she and her husband had been separated and didn’t want to think about it any longer.  
“We only know as much as you do, buddy,” Dan said, fumbling with the toy piano, “But if we’re going to try and save him, we should get back to the chase.”  
The four began walking out of the door to immediately begin running. Suzy was the last out, but she heard something from inside the cabin. Hesitating, she walked back inside.  
“Suzy?” Ross said, noticing she didn’t follow them out the door.  
“Do you guys hear that at all?”  
The three men listened closely. There was a subtle buzz of static coming from one corner of the room.  
“I think we’re going insa-” Dan said, but was cut off.  
In a flash of light, Arin was crouched before them, holding his hands over his face, the shackles that bound him no longer there.  
Suzy gasped, “Arin!”  
“Arin!?” the other three yelled in response.  
Arin lowered his hands and looked around. His eyes first scanned the three men, then met the green eyes of his beloved. Immediately, he stood up and run towards her, picking her up in his arms and embracing her passionately. Danny, Barry, and Ross ran towards the two and joined into the hug and in that moment, no one thought any less of those who decided to cry, and a healthy sob was shared by the reunited Game Grumps.


	13. The Reckoning

It seemed like hours passed before the five of them finally split apart. They all took a moment to wipe their faces clean of tears and other remnants of their sobbing. None of them spoke, but instead just stood there, once more comfortable with the silence that was now filled with five of them instead of four. It was only moments before they started laughing.  
“That silence went on for way too long,” Arin said.  
“Ah, man, you’re back! You’re here!” Danny said, jovial.  
Arin stared down at his hands, realizing he was no longer in his shackles, “Yeah. Yeah I am.”  
Suzy looked at him lovingly, “I missed you, babe.”  
“I missed you, too,” Arin said back with a smirk.  
“Suzy fuckin’ took out a wizard at one point to get us here,” Danny said, tapping Suzy on the shoulder.  
“I told you I could cut a bitch.”  
Arin laughed, “That’s why I married you,” and he placed his arm around her waist and the two walked over to the still frozen couch.  
“Uh, guys, I hate to be that guy but we still need to get out of this place,” Barry said, standing at the door.  
“Shit, I forgot,” Suzy said.  
“Are you good to run, buddy?” Dan asked.  
“I guess?” Arin replied.  
“Good. Because you’re fucking back in Shattered Memories.”  
Once more, the group made their way back outside and were greeted with the shrieks of the pale pink monsters that were slowly making their way towards the group. Barry took off running first, Dan following, and Ross looked to Suzy and Arin. He gestured for them to take off before him.  
“Ross, what are you doing?” Arin asked.  
“Look, I’ve already gone missing once before on this crazy train and I somehow found everyone again. I think it’ll be okay if it happens to me a second time.”  
“God damnit, Ross,” Arin said and quickly exchanged another hug with the Australian.  
“Babe, we gotta get going. Dan and Barry are probably already halfway there,” Suzy said, starting to run back into the forest and Arin took off after her.  
Ross was about to start running when he heard something over his shoulder.  
“Y’know they just think you’re annoying, right?”  
“Why did that sound like me but it wasn’t me?” Ross said, confused and scared.  
“Everyone just pities you. Even your fans think you’re stupid.”  
“Why is this my voice?! I’m so confused!”  
“And you suck at animating.”  
Ross stopped, “Wait. Is this that thing Suzy and Dan were talking about? Where their voices told them some spooky shit to scare them? Well, I’m prepared and it’s not gonna work on me!”  
The voice seemed to stop and Ross took this as his cue to start running. As he worked his way through the forest towards the exit, he was stopped by monsters latching themselves onto him. He used what strength he had in order to focus on throwing them down into the snow. He knew he had to make it back, it didn’t matter if he had already gone missing. His friends were all reunited and he wasn’t going to be the one to ruin it.  
“Ross, over here!” it was Danny yelling for him.  
Ross looked closer to see Dan waving from a door located in a massive concrete wall. He stepped his pace up and sprinted to where he was sure safety awaited him.  
“Man, you guys, I heard that thing,” Ross said between heaving breaths.  
“What thing?”  
“That thing you and Suzy were talking about. That voice that sounds like you but isn’t you.”  
“Yeah?”  
“It said I was bad at animating.”  
His four friends gasped in horror.  
“I don’t even know what you’re all talking about and I’m still shocked,” Arin said, a hand clutched to his chest.  
The group was standing on a bridge and taking a mental inventory of the scenery.  
“Do you remember how to get through this?” Danny directed his question at Arin.  
“You were the one reading the walkthrough, dude.”  
“… Oh.”  
Suzy and Barry walked across the bridge and Suzy called back to them, “I think we have to go this way!”  
The other three joined them on the other side and made their way to a small ranger’s station. One-by-one, they climbed through the window and went out the door on the other side.  
“Do you guys hear something?” Ross asked.  
A flash of light tore open the game’s coding for a brief moment and sent out a shockwave, knocking the five of them to the ground. When the moment passed, Arin saw a familiar figure.  
“I tried asking nicely and you wouldn’t comply. Now is when I use force.”  
Arin’s four friend stood up, guarding him from the Cloaked Figure.  
“Aw, this is like something out of an actual game,” it said, only to be greeted with the disgruntled sighs of the entire Grump Family.  
“You’re not taking him again,” Suzy said, through gritted teeth.  
“You’re right. I’m not taking him.”  
Almost as fast as it appeared, the Cloaked Figure was gone. And so were Ross, Barry, Danny, and Suzy. Arin’s mind almost sent him into shock.  
“No!” he yelled, slamming his fists into the fake snow, but in another flash he was in another environment entirely.  
The graphics were primitive, but still charming in their own way. Arin was able to place them instantly as being from the Nintendo 64 era of gaming and came to a very shocking realization.

—

“Hey, who’s gonna start this dang-ass game?!” Jon said, squished in between Paul Ritchey and Josh Henderson.  
“You fuckin’ do it!” Josh yelled, laughing at the same time.  
“Paul, you invited me here to get drunk with three of my favorite people, I didn’t know I’d have to do all the work!”  
“Think of it as an honor that we’re bestowing upon you.”  
“That’s a great idea, Nick Murphy,” Paul said, taking a sip of his beer.  
“Fine, FINE, I’ll do it. Gimme the game.”  
Jon knelt down in front of the NES, making sure his beer was steady on the ground. He had the game cartridge in his hands, but as soon as he made contact with the console, he was turned into the hundreds of thousand of pixels and transported inside of the television.  
The three men of Continue? stood up in shock.  
“What the fuck?!” they all yelled in unison, realizing that Jon was now inside the digital world.

—

Arin heard a buzz of static behind him and another flash of light flooded the area. He stayed turned around, knowing better than to be blinded shortly after the familiar sound.  
“Ech!”  
This, too, was a familiar sound, but one that wasn’t supposed to be hostile. He spun around to see his old companion, messy hair, beard, and all.  
“Jon?”  
“Arin?”

—

“What the fuck? Where are we!?” Danny said, pounding on the walls of the dark room where he, and the others, were being contained.  
“Quiet, all of you.”  
This voice wasn’t one of their own this time, but it was outside of the cell where they were.  
“Your friend wasn’t going to play nice, now I’m going to make him play nice.”  
“Sounds kinky,” Ross whispered, leaning towards Danny.  
“God damnit, Ross.”  
“Would you guys cut it out for just one second,” Suzy pleaded, “We just got Arin back to us and now he’s out there. Who knows if we’ll even see him again. God DAMNIT.”  
Suzy slumped down the side of the wall, seeming defeated.  
“Suzy, I’m… I’m sorry. We were stupid,” Danny said, apologizing profusely.  
She sighed, “I know he’s going to be fine. I just know it.”  
Before them, the familiar white text showed up once more.

JonTron has joined the game.


End file.
